THE Trip, Prescott to Jerome Arizona, The Drive

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

After our stop at Granite Dells near Prescott Arizona, Man and I headed back to our campsite, by driving the long slow gorgeous way, via Jerome Arizona.  If you plot the route on Microsoft Streets and Trips, it says it is 34.8 miles.  Lets see, at 55 MPH, that is less than an hour away.  NOT!

We had met a fellow on one of our trips to Jerome who had been born and had actually graduated from high school there, I believe he said he was the last class to graduate before they closed the school.  During our chat he told us that they had driven from Prescott that morning.  Asking about road conditions he said it was a bit rough.  That concerned us, just a little, it is never fun riding a rough road, necessary sometimes, but not terribly comfy.  However, we decided to drive it anyway and much to our surprise and delight we found the road to be more than acceptable, very few small bumps, not what we consider to be rough, NOT AT ALL!  LOL  Course, our stick built home is on a gravel country road, a mile and half off of any paved road, so, we rate roads from a different point of view, err, bump.

A blow up of the map shows a few curves and switch backs:

Click on image for a larger view.

I missed getting the photo of the sign that said no trailers longer than 50 feet allowed on route 89A.  However, you can see it here.

Looking down on part of 89, from somewhere on the way towards Jerome, still going UP!

Below:  After you reach the top and start back down, you can see for miles and miles, way in the background, the red and white rock formations, that is Sedona!

Below, another view of Sedona far off, mid-photo is Cottonwood Arizona.  And, just over that guard rail, an extremely long and sharp drop off into some canyon.  Not one inch of room for a driving error here.

Look closely at this next photo, lots of curvy road down there, on the way down to Jerome and Cottonwood:

Switch backs galore, another reason this ride took a lot longer than what the mileage amounts would indicate:

Just down the road from here there is a huge beautiful pull off with the best views (just before you get to Jerome).  At this point Man had me drive the rest of the way to Cottonwood.  Man wanted to really have a good lookie see at the views, not just the glances he usually gets while driving.  I managed to get us down without incident, except for a few irate drivers that wanted to do 55 around the 25 MPH hairpin curves and 75 in the 45 MPH steep grades down.  Yep, I got flipped off by one nice dude.  Why he would want to flip off an old lady with white knuckle grip on the steering wheel who is doing the speed limit (plus a couple) is beyond me, but, he did.

And thus ended our trip to Prescott Arizona, the Granite Dells, route 89A to Jerome, Cottonwood and back to Camp Verde. We had a full day, fun, thrilling a time or two. Perfect!!



*  We visited Prescott and drove 89A to Jerome on April 16, 2011.
.

THE Trip, Jerome Arizona, The Mining Stuff, The "Slide", AND - -

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Continuing our tour of Jerome Arizona:

Because this is mining country, you just know they are gonna have examples of equipment displayed.  Man enjoyed all of this, I had little interest, but, still took a photo or two, for him, don't cha know.  So, this is a rocker shovel and dragline.  Me thinks this is the rocker shovel part?? It weighs about 4,200 pounds...

According to the sign nearby: "When the bucket is loaded with rubble, the operator actuates the bucket drive motor to exert force on the rocker pull chain, which is attached near the outer end of the rocker arms. The rocker arms roll the bucket upward toward the rear of the machine so that it maximizes the initial lift force on the bucket. As the bucket is thrown rearward, its vertical velocity decreases, and its horizontal velocity increases until the rocker arms strike stock-absorbing stops on the frame. When the bucket stops, the contents are flung into an attached mine car."

OKKKKKKKK, IF you say so!!!!  Fling away!  Like I said, Man enjoyed this stuff.

We happened upon the Mine Museum, the price of entry was right, and in we went.  It is well done, nice displays, a mix of the human story and the story of mining.  How bout this sign, sitting on the street??  WOW!

Here is the other half, sitting beside a car, you can see how large it really is:

Inside the museum they had a section darkened so they could do a display on what it was like (I imagine only sorta what it was like, eh?) down in a mine.  For example, the elevator, err cage:

So, part one of the story of Jerome is mining, part two may be the "Slide".  It took place during the 1920's.  Seems the miners were a bit too aggressive??  From a sign at the Miner Museum we learn:

"Jerome seemed to be on the move when a steam shovel hit a misfired coyote hole on November 23, 1926. This caused movement along the prominent Verde Fault."

According to Webster's Online Dictionary, a coyote hole is,  "A small tunnel driven horizontally into the rock at right angles to the face of the quarry. It has two or more crosscuts driven from it parallel to the face. It is in the ends of these crosscuts that the explosive charge is generally placed, and the remaining space in the tunnel is filled up with rock, sand, timbers, or concrete, to act as stemming or tamping. Same as gopher hole."

Apparently the Verde Fault runs through Jerome proper, I am not much of a geologist, and my attempts to "google" where the Verde Fault in fact does lie found a bunch of really technical articles, interesting but, not what I was looking for.  This page, however, does help  me some, and it shows Jerome and the Verde Fault in the 4th stage.

So, they used so much dynamite that they actually shook up a natural fault nearby.  I am having a bit of trouble wrapping my imagination around this. Amazing stuff this.  I believe some of the locals also explained that there were so many mine shafts, so deep in the earth that the miners had actually weakened the hill/mountain.  That is a bit amazing too.  At any rate, for whatever reason, Jerome was sliding off the hill side.  Many buildings were  a total loss and some are now parking lots.

Then there are these, found during our walking tour of town, left standing for us to stare at, photograph and wonder about:

Almost looks as if someone painted this recently, doesn't it?

Below, the sliding jail.  A nice summary of the story of the sliding jail can be found here.

Ohhhh, back at that Mine Museum, I found this interesting photo, which I just really loved, irony packed, no words required.

Man and I would drive to or through Jerome three times during our stay at nearby Camp Verde.   Each trip was interesting, Sony and I had a good time!  Click Click!



* For some more fun reading on Jerome and it's wild stories, you might like this site.  They have a fun map here, even shows the sliding jail, where it started and where it ended up (scroll down just a little for the map, split in two).  And, oh, how fun is this, they have their own blog??  Last entry July 22, 2009.
.

THE Trip, Jerome Arizona, America's Largest Ghost City

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Largest ghost city??  Well, that is what is claimed on one of the many signs found around Jerome.  I gotta tell you, Jerome is crazy proud of their heritage.  They have a great little museum run by the Historical Society.  At one time the Historical Society owned many of the buildings in town.  They have sold all but 8 or so back to residents and business people of the town, and I believe some of the 8 that they continue to own may be rented out.

Jerome is an old copper mining town. It is said that billion (yep, with a "B") of dollars of copper was mined out of the 88 miles of underground mines.  Then fire destroyed the underground mines, so, the miners took to open pit mining, accompanied by a whole lot of dynamite.  The constant dynamiting eventually shook buildings and businesses apart and some of them slid down the hill.  The city jail slid 225 feet down the hill.  It is not revealed if there were any prisoners incarcerated at the time of the "slide".

For those that might enjoy some further reading on Jerome, there is a Chamber of Commerce page, of course, there is a Wikipedia page, and a page for the historical society, where they claim they are the “Wickedest Town in The West”.

A view of town from down in the valley below.  J for Jerome, of course.  The ride to Jerome and back down again is, well, shall we say, STEEP??  Yes, we shall.

Above:  This photo does not really tell the story, we need 3D to really let you see how steep this is, the road will do at least two 180 type degree turns (hairpins) between where we are on the lower level and the houses above.

Above, Jerome, a pretty little town sitting on the side of a steep mountain.

Arriving in town, we found a parking spot for Big Butt (it was NOT busy in town the day we arrived, on our next visit we would have been hard pushed to find ANY parking spot, and for sure, nothing the big dude would fit into).  We started walking the narrow, windy, steep streets.  Town is a collection of artists, places to have a cup of latte and a sandwich, or a beer and a pizza, or - - - yep, lots of choices.  And, to my delight, a lot of eclectic shops.   This is outside the "House of Joy", which was sadly, closed.  I can only imagine the fun stuff the shop owner had inside, if this was outside!

A view of one of the streets in town, up close and personal, note the angles which equal steep inclines!  (Note, I was holding the camera pretty level, Jerome is far from level!  LOL)

The turns and corners can be a bit tight and narrow up here, witness the mirrors so you can see around the corner, and look closely, there is Big Butt doing his thing!

Next, I'll bring you a few photos of the mining stuff, and a few of the proof of the "slide", and one other "interesting" photo.


.